2018 Roland Garros – Day Ten Men’s Preview

2018 ROLAND GARROS

DAY 10 MEN’S NOTES

Tuesday 5 June

Quarterfinals Bottom Half

Featured matches

No. 2 Alexander Zverev (GER) v No. 7 Dominic Thiem (AUT)

No. 20 Novak Djokovic (SRB) v Marco Cecchinato (ITA)

A look at the quarterfinalists…

Player	Country	Age	Ranking	Best Roland Garros performance	Best Grand Slam performance
No. 1 Rafael Nadal	ESP	32	1	W 2005-08, 2010-14, 2017	16 titles
No. 2 Alexander Zverev	GER	21	3	QF 2018	QF 2018 Roland Garros
No. 3 Marin Cilic	CRO	29	4	QF 2017-18	W 2014 US Open
No. 5 Juan Martin del Potro	ARG	29	6	SF 2009	W 2009 US Open
No. 7 Dominic Thiem	AUT	24	8	SF 2016-17	SF 2016-17 Roland Garros
No. 11 Diego Schwartzman	ARG	25	12	QF 2018	QF 2017 US Open, 2018 Roland Garros
No. 20 Novak Djokovic	SRB	31	22	W 2016	12 titles
Marco Cecchinato	ITA	25	72	QF 2018	QF 2018 Roland Garros

On court today…

The 2 players who have won the most Tour-level matches this year, Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem, meet on Court Philippe Chatrier today with plenty at stake. After breaking through to his first Grand Slam quarterfinal off the back of 3 consecutive 5-set match-wins, Zverev could become the first player in the Open Era to win 4 straight matches in 5 sets if today’s match goes the distance. However, Thiem is seeking familiar ground here, looking to secure a 3rd successive Roland Garros semifinal berth and in doing so go top of the list for most semifinal appearances here by an Austrian player.

2016 champion Novak Djokovic aims for history today when he takes on Italy’s Marco Cecchinato on Court Suzanne Lenglen. Victory for Djokovic will see him advance to his 32nd Grand Slam semifinal – and give him sole ownership of 2nd place on the Open Era list for most Grand Slam semifinal appearances, ahead of Jimmy Connors. But the Serb must be wary of world No. 72 Cecchinato, who has already defeated No. 10 seed Pablo Carreno Busta and No. 8 seed David Goffin here this fortnight. Should he score another upset, Cecchinato will become the lowest-ranked semifinalist at Roland Garros since No. 100 Andrei Medvedev reached the last 4 here in 1999.

2 ALEXANDER ZVEREV (GER) v NO. 7 DOMINIC THIEM (AUT)

Head-to-head: Thiem leads 4-2

2016 Munich Clay (O) SF Thiem 46 62 63

2016 Nice Clay (O) FR Thiem 64 36 60

2016 Roland Garros Clay (O) R32 Thiem 67(4) 63 63 63

2016 Beijing Hard (O) R32 Zverev 46 61 63

2017 Rotterdam Hard (I) R32 Thiem 36 63 64

2018 Madrid-1000 Clay (O) FR Zverev 64 64

A 7th meeting between the pair, who have met at a Grand Slam once before – in the 3rd round here 2 years ago. Thiem won on that occasion, but Zverev has won 2 out of their 3 meetings since, most recently at Madrid-1000 last month.

Zverev and Thiem are the leading players in 2018 in terms of Tour-level match-wins. Thiem will equal Zverev in 1st place on the list for most Tour-level match-wins this year if he wins today.

2018 Tour-level match-wins

Alexander Zverev	34-8
Dominic Thiem	33-8
Juan Martin del Potro Rafael Nadal	27-6 27-2
Fabio Fognini	25-12

Thiem has recorded more match-wins on clay than any other player in 2018, while Zverev is in 3rd place on the list for most clay court match-wins this year.

2018 Tour-level match-wins on clay

Dominic Thiem	24-5
Rafael Nadal	23-1
Alexander Zverev	21-3
Fabio Fognini Diego Schwartzman	17-8 17-6

Possible semifinal head-to-heads

	Djokovic	Cecchinato
Zverev	1-0	0-0
Thiem	2-5	0-0

ZVEREV v THIEM

21 Age 24

3 ATP Ranking 8

8 Titles 10

18-11 Career Grand Slam Record 41-17

6-2 Roland Garros Record 16-4

151-78 Career Record 204-117

58-23 Career Record – Clay 107-35

34-8 2018 Record 33-8

21-3 2018 Record – Clay 24-5

7-5 Career Five-Set Record 4-5

0 Comebacks from 0-2 Down 2

56-43 Career Tiebreak Record 76-69

10-3 2018 Tiebreak Record 9-6

Road to the Quarterfinals

ZVEREV	Time		Time	THIEM
d. Ricardas Berankis 61 61 62 d. Dusan Lajovic 26 75 46 61 62	1:09 3:25	1st round 2nd round	1:44 2:40	d. (Q) Ilya Ivashka 62 64 61 d. Stefanos Tsitsipas 62 26 64 64
d. No. 26 Damir Dzumhur 62 36 46 76(3) 75	3:54	3rd round	2:37	d. Matteo Barrettini 63 67(5) 63 62
d. Karen Khachanov 46 76(4) 26 63 63	3:29	Round of 16	2:28	d. No. 19 Kei Nishikori 62 60 57 64

total time on court	11:57	(IDS time)	9:29	total time on court

ZVEREV is bidding to reach the semifinals at a Grand Slam for the first time.

Zverev is bidding to become just the 3rd German man to reach the semifinals at Roland Garros in the Open Era – and the first since 1996, when Michael Stich finished runner-up here. Boris Becker, who reached the semifinals here on 3 occasions, and Stich, who reached 2 semifinals here, are the only German men to have reached the last 4 at Roland Garros in the Open Era.

Zverev is bidding to become the 7th German man in the Open Era to reach the semifinals at a Grand Slam, and the first since 2009, when Tommy Haas reached the last 4 at Wimbledon.

German men in Grand Slam semifinals (Open Era)

Player	Grand Slam semifinals reached
Karl Meiler	1973 Australian Open
Boris Becker	1985-86, 1988-91, 1993-95 Wimbledon; 1986, 1989-90, 1995 US Open; 1987, 1989, 1991 Roland Garros; 1991, 1996 Australian Open
Michael Stich	1991, 1996 Roland Garros; 1991, 1997 Wimbledon; 1993 Australian Open; 1994 US Open
Tommy Haas	1999, 2002, 2007 Australian Open; 2009 Wimbledon
Rainer Schuettler	2003 Australian Open; 2006 Wimbledon
Nicolas Kiefer	2006 Australian Open
*Alexander Zverev??*	*2018 Roland Garros??*

At 21 years 51 days Zverev is looking to become the youngest Roland Garros semifinalist since 2009, when Juan Martin del Potro reached the semifinals here aged 20 years 257 days. (NB Age calculated at the end of the tournament)

By reaching the quarterfinals here, Zverev has 7th German man in the Open Era to reach the quarterfinals at Roland Garros – and only the 2nd since 1996 (when Bernd Karbarcher and Stich both reached the last 8 here) after Haas in 2013.

By reaching the quarterfinals here, Zverev has also recorded his best Grand Slam performance. His previous best Grand Slam performance was reaching the round of 16 at 2017 Wimbledon (l. Milos Raonic). He reached the 3rd round on his debut here in 2016 (l. today’s opponent) and lost in the 1st round to Fernando Verdasco last year on his 2 previous Roland Garros appearances. This is his 12th Grand Slam overall.

By defeating Dusan Lajovic, Damir Dzumhur and Karen Khachanov in 5 sets here, Zverev became the 8th man in the Open Era to win 3 consecutive 5-set matches at Roland Garros. He came from 1-2 down in each of his 5-set matches here – becoming the first man to do so at any major since Tommy Robredo came from 0-2 in 3 consecutive 5-set matches here in 2013.

If Zverev wins in 5 sets today, he will become the first player in the Open Era to win 4 consecutive 5-set matches at a Grand Slam. Only 4 players have won 4 non-consecutive 5-set matches at a Grand Slam in the Open Era – Steve Denton (1981 Australian Open), Todd Martin (1994 Wimbledon), Nicolas Lapentti (1999 Australian Open) and Albert Costa (2003 Roland Garros). A further 8 players have contested 3 five-set matches and lost a 4th five-set match.

If Zverev wins the title here, he will become the 4th man in the Open Era to have contested 3 five-set matches at Roland Garros and gone on to win the title. Bjorn Borg (1974), Gustavo Kuerten (1997) and Gaston Gaudio (2004) are the only men in the Open Era to have achieved the feat – and of them, only Kuerten won 3 consecutive 5-set matches.

By winning his last 3 matches in 5 sets, Zverev improved his win-loss record in 5-set matches to 7-5. He saved a match point in the victory against Dzumhur. They are the first 5-set matches he has contested at Roland Garros.

Zverev warmed up for Roland Garros by winning the titles at Munich (d. Philipp Kohlschreiber) and Madrid-1000 (d. today’s opponent). By winning the title at Madrid-1000, he became the 5th active player, after the ‘Big 4’ of Nadal, Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray to win 3 or more Masters-1000 titles.

Also on clay in 2018, Zverev reached the final at Rome-1000 (l. Nadal) and the semifinals at Monte Carlo-1000 (l. Kei Nishikori). His defeat to Nadal at Rome-1000 ended a 13-match winning streak. He also won one of his 2 singles rubbers in Germany’s Davis Cup World Group quarterfinal defeat to Spain.

Elsewhere in 2018, Zverev reached the final at Miami-1000 (l. John Isner) and the semifinals at Acapulco (l. Del Potro), but lost in the 3rd round at the Australian Open (l. Hyeon Chung).

Zverev is bidding to record his first victory against a Top 10 player at a Grand Slam on his 5th attempt. The highest-ranked player he has defeated at a major is No. 29 Dzumhur in his the 3rd round here for his 150th Tour-level match-win. He has lost all 4 matches with Top 10 opposition at the Grand Slams but has never faced a Top 10 player here.

Zverev has won 4 of his last 5 matches against Top 10 opposition at Tour-level, with his only defeat in that time coming against No. 2 Nadal in the final at Rome-1000 this year. He has a 15-19 win-loss record against Top 10 opposition at Tour-level overall.

At 21 years 51 days, Zverev is looking to become the youngest Grand Slam men’s singles champion since Del Potro won the US Open aged 20 years 355 days, and the youngest Roland Garros men’s singles champion since Nadal won the title here in 2007 aged 21 years 7 days. (NB Age calculated at the end of the tournament) (see Preview page 4)

Zverev is seeded No. 2 here – his highest seeding at a Grand Slam. This is the first time that a player other than the ‘Big 4’ has been among the top 2 seeds at Roland Garros since 2005, when Federer and Andy Roddick were seeded No. 1 and No. 2 respectively, and the first time at Grand Slam since the 2006 Australian Open, when Federer and Roddick were also the top 2 seeds. (see Preview page 4)

Zverev’s older brother Mischa Zverev reached the 3rd round here – making the Zverevs just the 2nd pair of brothers to reach the 3rd round at Roland Garros in the same year in the Open Era after Gene and Sandy Mayer in 1979. Mischa fell to No. 6 seed Kevin Anderson in 4 sets on Saturday.

Zverev rose to a career-high ranking of No. 3 in November 2017, becoming the youngest player to break the Top 3 since Djokovic in 2007. He plays here at the same ranking.

Zverev is a former junior world No. 1. He was named 2013 ITF Junior World Champion and went on to win the boys’ singles title at the 2014 Australian Open (d. Stefan Kozlov). As well as finishing runner-up in the boys’ singles at 2013 Roland Garros (l. Christian Garin), he helped Germany reach the 2013 Junior Davis Cup Final (l. Spain).

Zverev is coached by his father, Alexander Zverev Sr. His physical trainer is Jez Green and his physio is Hugo Gravil.

THIEM is bidding to reach the semifinals here for the 3rd straight year and equal his best Grand Slam performance. This is his 5th straight Roland Garros appearance and his 18th Grand Slam overall.

Thiem is bidding to reach his 3rd Roland Garros semifinal and go top of the list for most Roland Garros semifinal appearances by an Austrian player – man or woman.

Austrians in Roland Garros semifinals

Player	No. of appearances
Dominic Thiem	3?? (2016, 2017 2018??)
Thomas Muster	2 (1990, 1995)
Jurgen Melzer	1 (2010)

Thiem is bidding to reach his 3rd Grand Slam semifinal and close the gap on Thomas Muster on the list for most Grand Slam semifinal appearances by an Austrian player – man or woman. Muster – who reached the semifinals at the 1989 and 1997 Australian Open and here in 1990 and 1995 – and Jurgen Melzer (2010 Roland Garros) are the only other Austrian players to reach a Grand Slam semifinal.

Thiem is bidding to record his 17th match-win here and take sole ownership of 2nd place on the list for most matches won by an Austrian man at Roland Garros.

Most matches won by an Austrian man at Roland Garros (all-time)

Rank	Player	Roland Garros win-loss
1.	Thomas Muster	32-13
2=	Jurgen Melzer Dominic Thiem	16-13 16-4
4.	Hermann Artens	15-6
5.	Franz-Wilhelm Matejka	9-3

By reaching his 3rd Grand Slam quarterfinal, Thiem took sole ownership of 2nd place on the list for most Grand Slam quarterfinal appearances by an Austrian player – man or woman – ahead of Tamira Paszek and Judith Wiesner. Muster (9 Grand Slam quarterfinals) is the only Austrian player to have reached the last 8 at a major more often.

Last year here Thiem equalled his best Grand Slam performance by reaching the semifinals, where he lost to eventual champion Rafael Nadal in straight sets. He also reached the semifinals in 2016, losing to eventual champion Novak Djokovic.

Thiem warmed up for Roland Garros by winning the title at Lyon, where he defeated Gilles Simon in the final for his 200th Tour-level match-win. He also reached the final at Madrid-1000 (l. today’s opponent) and the quarterfinals at Monte Carlo-1000 (l. Nadal) and Barcelona (l. Stefanos Tsitsipas), but lost his opening match at Rome-1000 (l. Fabio Fognini).

Thiem is one of 3 players – alongside Nadal and today’s opponent – to have won multiple clay court titles this season. In addition to his victory at Lyon, he also won the title at Buenos Aires in February (d. Aljaz Bedene).

For the 2nd straight year, Thiem is the only player to have defeated Nadal on clay prior to Roland Garros. His victory against Nadal in the quarterfinals at Madrid-1000 ended both Nadal’s 21-match winning streak on clay and his streak of 50 straight sets won on clay. It was the first time Nadal had dropped a set on clay since Thiem’s victory against him in the quarterfinals at 2017 Rome-1000.

Earlier this year, Thiem reached the semifinals at Doha, where he gave a walkover to Gael Monfils due to a viral infection, the quarterfinals at Rio de Janeiro (l. Fernando Verdasco) and Acapulco (l. Juan Martin del Potro), and the round of 16 at the Australian Open (l. Tennys Sandgren).

Thiem is bidding to defeat a Top 5 player at a Grand Slam for the 2nd time on his 5th attempt. His best victory at a major came against No. 2 Djokovic in the quarterfinals here last year. He has a 1-3 win-loss record against Top 5 players at the majors and an 8-18 win-loss record against Top 5 players overall.

Clay is Thiem’s best surface, with 107 of his 204 Tour-level victories coming on the surface. By contrast, he has an 84-71 win-loss record on hard courts and a 13-11 win-loss record on grass.

Thiem reached a career-high ranking of No. 4 in November 2017. He plays here at No. 8.

Thiem has played Davis Cup for Austria since 2014 and has a 7-5 win-loss record in the competition overall. Austria will play Australia in the World Group play-offs in Graz on 14-16 September.

Thiem is a former junior world No. 2. He reached the boys’ singles final at Roland Garros as No. 14 seed in 2011, losing to Bjorn Fratangelo 36 63 86. As well as reaching the junior Roland Garros final, Thiem’s best junior result is winning the 2011 Orange Bowl.

Thiem joined the Austrian military as part of the country’s mandatory national service for 6 months from November 2014-April 2015, but continued to play on Tour during that time.

Thiem is coached by Gunter Bresnik. His physio is Alex Stober.

20 NOVAK DJOKOVIC (SRB) v MARCO CECCHINATO (ITA)

Head-to-head: first meeting

Djokovic has lost Grand Slam matches to players ranked as low as No. 72 Cecchinato on 2 occasions – at 2008 Wimbledon, when he fell to No. 75 Marat Safin, and at the 2017 Australian Open, when he fell to No. 117 Denis Istomin. The lowest-ranked player to have defeated Djokovic at Roland Garros is No. 31 Philipp Kohlschreiber in the 3rd round in 2009.

Djokovic has lost clay court matches to players ranked as low as Cecchinato on 6 occasions – most recently at Barcelona this year when he fell to No. 140 Martin Klizan in the 2nd round.

Possible semifinal head-to-heads

	Zverev	Thiem
Djokovic	0-1	5-2
Cecchinato	0-0	0-0

DJOKOVIC v CECCHINATO

31 Age 25

22 ATP Ranking 72

68 Titles 1

244-40 Career Grand Slam Record 4-4

63-12 Roland Garros Record 4-1

797-170 Career Record 16-32

200-51 Career Record – Clay 16-26

14-7 2018 Record 12-9

11-4 2018 Record – Clay 12-8

28-9 Career Five-Set Record 1-0

4 Comebacks from 0-2 Down 1

222-129 Career Tiebreak Record 7-9

4-5 2018 Tiebreak Record 4-4

Road to the Quarterfinals

DJOKOVIC	Time		Time	CECCHINATO
d. (Q) Rogerio Dutra Silva 63 64 64 d. (Q) Jaume Munar 76(1) 64 64	2:05 2:18	1st round 2nd round	3:41 1:58	d. Marius Copil 26 67(4) 75 62 10-8 d. (LL) Marco Trungelliti 61 76(1) 61
d. No. 13 Roberto Bautista Agut 64 67(6) 76(4) 62	3:48	3rd round	2:19	d. No. 10 Pablo Carreno Busta 26 76(5) 63 61
d. No. 30 Fernando Verdasco 63 64 62	2:25	Round of 16	2:31	d. No. 8 David Goffin 75 46 60 63

total time on court	10:36	(IDS time)	10:29	total time on court

2016 champion DJOKOVIC is bidding to reach his 32nd Grand Slam semifinal and claim sole ownership of 2nd place on the list for most Grand Slam semifinal appearances in the Open Era, ahead of Jimmy Connors.

Most Grand Slam semifinal appearances (Open Era)

Player	No. of appearances
Roger Federer	43
*Novak Djokovic*	*32??*
Jimmy Connors	31
Ivan Lendl	28
*Rafael Nadal*	*27??*
Andre Agassi	26

Djokovic is bidding to reach his 9th Roland Garros semifinal and extend his lead over Roger Federer in 2nd place on the list for most semifinal appearances at Roland Garros in the Open Era. (see table overleaf)

Most Roland Garros semi appearances (Open Era)

Player	No. of appearances
*Rafael Nadal*	*11??*
*Novak Djokovic*	*9??*
Roger Federer	7
Bjorn Borg Mats Wilander	6 6
Andre Agassi Ivan Lendl Andy Murray	5 5 5

Djokovic is bidding to record his 64th Roland Garros match-win and close the gap on Federer in 2nd place on the list for most Roland Garros match-wins.

Most Roland Garros match-wins (all-time)

Rank	Player	Roland Garros win-loss
1.	Rafael Nadal	83-2
2.	Roger Federer	65-16
3.	Novak Djokovic	63-12
4.	Guillermo Vilas	58-17
5=	Jaroslav Drobny Ivan Lendl	53-14 53-12

Roland Garros is Djokovic’s most successful Grand Slam event in terms of matches won and his 2nd-most successful Grand Slam in terms of semifinals, but the only Grand Slam at which he has failed to win multiple titles.

Grand Slam	Titles won	Win-loss record	Semifinals reached
Australian Open	6	61-8	6
Roland Garros	1	63-12	*9??*
Wimbledon	3	58-10	7
US Open	2	62-10	10

By reaching his 12th Roland Garros quarterfinal, Djokovic set the record for most appearances in the last 8 here in the Open Era. Rafael Nadal also reached his 12th quarterfinal here after defeating Maximilian Marterer in the round of 16 on Monday.

By reaching his 9th consecutive Roland Garros quarterfinal, Djokovic also equalled Federer’s Open Era record for most consecutive appearances in the last 8 here.

By reaching his 40th Grand Slam quarterfinal, Djokovic closed the gap on Connors in 2nd place on the list for the most Grand Slam quarterfinal appearances in the Open Era. Federer (52 Grand Slam quarterfinal appearances) and Connors (41) are the only men in the Open Era to have reached the last 8 at a major more often.

Last year here, Djokovic reached the quarterfinals (l. Dominic Thiem). It was his earliest exit at Roland Garros since 2010, when he also reached the quarterfinals (l. Jurgen Melzer). This is his 14th consecutive appearance at Roland Garros and his 53rd Grand Slam overall.

Djokovic became the 8th man in history to win all 4 Grand Slam events by winning his first Roland Garros title in 2016, defeating Andy Murray in the final. It was his 12th Grand Slam crown – to add to his triumphs at the Australian Open in 2008 (d. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga), 2011 (d. Murray), 2012 (d. Nadal), 2013 (d. Murray), 2015 (d. Murray) and 2016 (d. Murray), Wimbledon in 2011 (d. Nadal), 2014 (d. Federer) and 2015 (d. Federer) and the US Open in 2011 (d. Nadal) and 2015 (d. Federer).

Djokovic is bidding to become the first man in the Open Era – and only the 3rd man in history – to win each of the 4 Grand Slams twice. Roy Emerson and Rod Laver are the only men to have won each Grand Slam on 2 or more occasions. [NB While Laver completed the feat in 1969, some of the titles were won before the start of the Open Era] (see Preview page 3)

Djokovic warmed up for Roland Garros by reaching the semifinals at Rome-1000 (l. Nadal) and the 3rd round at Monte Carlo-1000 (l. Thiem). He fell in the 2nd round at Barcelona (l. Martin Klizan) and Madrid-1000 (l. Kyle Edmund).

Also in 2018, Djokovic reached the round of 16 at the Australian Open (l. Hyeon Chung) but lost his opening matches at both Indian Wells-1000 (l. Taro Daniel) and Miami-1000 (l. Benoit Paire). He did not play between the Australian Open and Indian Wells-1000 due to elbow surgery. It is the first time since 2006 that Djokovic has failed to win a Tour-level title prior to Roland Garros.

Djokovic plays here seeded No. 20 – his lowest Grand Slam seeding since he was also seeded No. 20 at the 2006 US Open. It is his lowest seeding at Roland Garros.

Djokovic dropped out of the Top 20 for the first time in more than 11 years in May this year. He plays here ranked No. 22 – his lowest ranking since October 2006.

13 of Djokovic’s 68 Tour-level singles titles have come on clay, compared with 51 on hard courts and 4 on grass.

Djokovic reunited with former coach Marian Vajda ahead of the clay court season.

CECCHINATO is bidding to become the first Italian man to reach the semifinals at a Grand Slam since Corrado Barazzutti at 1978 Roland Garros.

Cecchinato is also bidding to become the 8th Italian man in history to reach a Grand Slam semifinal.

Italian men in Grand Slam semifinals (all-time)

Player	Grand Slam semifinals reached
Umberto De Morpurgo	1930 Roland Garros
Giorgio De Stefani	1932, 1934 Roland Garros
Giuseppe Merlo	1955-56 Roland Garros
Nicola Pietrangeli	1959-61, 1964 Roland Garros; 1960 Wimbledon
Orlando Sirola	1960 Roland Garros
Adriano Panatta	1973, 1975-76 Roland Garros
Corrado Barazzutti	1977 US Open; 1978 Roland Garros
*Marco Cecchinato??*	*2018 Roland Garros??*

Ranked No. 72, Cecchinato is bidding to become the lowest-ranked Roland Garros semifinalist since 100 Andrei Medvedev reached the last 4 here in 1999. By reaching the quarterfinals here, he became the lowest-ranked man to reach the last 8 at Roland Garros since No. 80 Ernests Gulbis in 2008.

Cecchinato is also bidding to become the lowest-ranked Grand Slam semifinalist since No. 75 Marat Safin and No. 94 Rainer Schuettler reached the last 4 at 2008 Wimbledon. By reaching the quarterfinals here, he became the 2nd-lowest-ranked man to reach the last 8 at a major this year, after No. 97 Tennys Sandgren reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open.

By reaching his first Grand Slam quarterfinal here, Cecchinato became the 9th Italian man to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal in the Open Era – and the first since Fabio Fognini reached the last 8 here in 2011.

Prior to this tournament, Cecchinato had lost in the 1st round at each of the 4 Grand Slam events he had contested – at the 2015 US Open (l. Mardy Fish), the 2016 Australian Open (l. Nicolas Mahut), 2016 Roland Garros (l. Nick Kyrgios) and 2017 Wimbledon (l. Kei Nishikori). Last year here, Cecchinato fell in the final round of qualifying.

Cecchinato’s victory against Marius Copil in the 1st round here this year was the first 5-set match he has contested. He came from 0-2 down to win 10-8 in the 5th set.

Cecchinato warmed up for Roland Garros by winning his first Tour-level title as a lucky loser at Budapest (d. John Millman). He became the first lucky loser to win a Tour-level title since Leonardo Mayer at 2017 Hamburg. He also reached the 2nd round as a qualifier at Monte Carlo-1000 (l. Milos Raonic), at Munich (l. Marton Fucsovics) and as a wild card at Rome-1000 (l. Goffin), but fell in the 1st round at Geneva (l. Andreas Seppi).

Also in 2018 Cecchinato fell in the 1st round as a qualifier at Buenos Aires (l. Horacio Zeballos) and Rio de Janeiro (l. Carreno Busta), and as a direct acceptance at Quito (l. Gerald Melzer) and Sao Paulo (l. Sebastian Ofner). He also won the title on clay at the Santiago Challenger (CHI) (d. Carlos Gomez-Herrera) and the semifinals at the Marbella Challenger (ESP) and the Alicante Challenger (ESP). Of the 17 events he has contested at any level in 2018, 14 have been on clay.

Cecchinato has won 3 of his last 4 matches against Top 30 opposition – including career-best victories against No. 11 Pablo Carreno Busta and No. 9 David Goffin here this year. He has a 2-2 win-loss record against Top 30 opponents at the majors and a 3-8 win-loss record against Top 30 opponents overall.

Cecchinato is bidding to record 5 consecutive match-wins at Tour-level for the 2nd time in his career. The only previous occasion he has achieved the feat was earlier this year, when he recorded 6 consecutive Tour-level match-wins from his title victory at Budapest through to his 2nd round finish at Munich. All 16 of his Tour-level match-wins to date have come on clay.